New signatures, such as those of Catherine Nay or Gaspard Proust, the comedian who distinguished himself during the evening of Current values on March 22, brutal departures and inflections in the political pages: the fire smolders in the Sunday newspaper (JDD).
While Vivendi has launched a takeover bid (OPA) on Lagardère, the owner of the title, the signals suggesting a takeover by its first shareholder, Vincent Bolloré, are multiplying. Two months ago, the arrival of Jérôme Béglé, former Point and columnist for the CNews channel, had been seen as a first warning signal.
On March 29, the announcement of the departure without explanation of Cyril Petit, number two in the editorial staff, much appreciated internally, had the effect of an explosion. “He had decided to leave a long time ago because of the new shareholder context”, believes a friend. Several internal sources point above all to the efforts made by the editorial director to “depoliticize”even “demacronize” the newspaper, known for hosting several interviews with ministers each week.
At the beginning of March, for example, Jérôme Béglé traps an interview already carried out with the socialist mayor of Dijon, François Rebsamen, who announces his rallying to Emmanuel Macron. The interview can be found in The Parisian on Sunday. The same week, he refuses a paper on Macron’s entry into the campaign, on the pretext that it is not “a political fact”, says a journalist. At the same time, however, he accepted articles on the exclusion of Sandrine Rousseau from the team of the environmental candidate, Yannick Jadot, and on the arrival of Marion Maréchal alongside Eric Zemmour.
change of foot
At the end of February, the JDD was still true to his habits. On the 27th, the former left-wing minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement and the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Renaud Muselier (ex-Les Républicains), announced in his columns their support for Emmanuel Macron.
Why this change of foot? In Paris, it is rumored that this number would have justly displeased in high places at Vivendi, which does not comment, and that Jérôme Béglé would have had his suspenders pulled up. The Head of State and Vincent Bolloré have had a stormy relationship since the appointment of Eric Zemmour at CNews in September 2019, to the point that the industrialist has only one idea in mind, that of defeating Emmanuel Macron at the presidential one. No question, therefore, of promoting it.
On March 15, Jérôme Béglé was summoned to explain himself to the editorial staff. “Some journalists do not find it abnormal that we do less about Macron, but there is the fear that the pro-Macron line will be replaced by another line”testifies one of them. “I am neither a macronist, nor an anti-macronist, nor a pécressiste, nor an anti-pécrèssiste, nor a lepenist, nor an anti-lepenist”defends the director, on March 31, before the society of journalists (SDJ), denying “any political takeover”. What he doesn’t just want is for us to take ” the JDD for a com box”.
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